Russell Mark's Olympic Blog

5th!!! No medals but no disgrace either

2008-08-12T14:36:00.000-07:00

Its over, despite my best efforts no medal this time. 5th place, struggled to get into the final, but I dont feel disgraced either.

Glen Eller from the USA should feel proud with his result. A great win under tough circumstances yesterday.

Personally I guess realistically making the final wasnt a bad result considering 6 months ago I wasnt even thinking of competing.

This is my last blog as I head home today.

Thanks to everyone who has emailed me with their wishes and thanks to Lenovo for their support.

The big day has arrived!

2008-08-11T05:22:00.000-07:00

After all this the journey comes to an end tomorrow morning at 9 am. I am in the first flight of shooters to get things going.

My training today wasn't great to be honest. I am not too worried about that though as it will make me a little less complacent for tomorrow. I do feel a little nervous but again I think that is a good thing as long as its controlled.

Our Shooting Team has not had a great Olympics to date with our female Trap Shooter, Stacy Roiall, having a real bad day at the office today. Hopefully I can get the ball rolling with a good result tomorrow.

Michael has left to go home today, probably the first Aussie to leave the village. the swimmers are keeping the medal tally going which is good for team moral.

I will write my final blog tomorrow after the event.

Wish me luck.

So Close yet so far

2008-08-10T02:57:00.000-07:00

My room mate Michael Diamond, finished an agonizing 4th in the Men's Trap event today. He lost a sudden death shoot off for 4th. This is how my wife, Lauryn, finished in Athens. It is possibly the loneliest spot to finish at the Olympics. Terrible wet weather for all today, but David Kostelecky from Czech shot a perfect final round to prove to the world he is a future force in shooting.

Official training for me tomorrow after the Women's Trap event then competition Tuesday and home to Melbourne on Wednesday

The rain has brought some relief in the weather here and to be honest I wouldn't care if it kept raining for a couple more days!!!!

Opening Ceremony Hangover

2008-08-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

I must admit last night was the most spectacular Opening Ceremony that I have attended. For the athlete I think Sydney was better, but for the spectator last night was clearly the best. varied reports on our uniform. The holding arena before we marched into the main stadium was unbelievably hot so everyone was melting. I personally thought the uniform was fine.

James Tomkins carried the flag with great enthusiasm. He was a gracious leader for the team.

My room mate, Michael Diamond is off to a great start in his event this morning with a perfect first round.

OK I am off to train.

More soon

08 08 08

2008-08-08T01:50:00.000-07:00

Well its here. And its humid!

We leave in just a few hours for the Opening Ceremony. As always our Ceremony uniform will cause lots of comment in tomorrows press. I think in mass we will look great, obviously I cant comment about the specifics. I will look forward to everyones comments tomorrow.

The feeling in the Village is one of excitement and stress. Many athletes are not going to march tonight as they have an early start tomorrow for competition. I always feel sorry for these athletes as it can be very noisy when all of the athletes return from the stadium at around 1am.

I took today off, but tomorrow I will train two rounds in the heat of the day at about 2pm.

My room mate Michael Diamond, a dual Gold Medallist, starts his quest for a third medal in the morning. He is in great form hitting 74/75 in his training rounds here. If he does that agin over the next two days then a gold medal is his for the taking.

Cheers

Day 2 Training

2008-08-07T04:49:00.000-07:00

Very humid here today, but despite this I shot two pretty decent rounds of 47. Four of those next Tuesday would get a podium finish I am sure.

Tomorrow is a rest day for me. I will get a sleep in which I am very much looking forward to and then later in the day head off to the Opening Ceremony.

Thanks to all my friends who are emailing me in relation to the blog. Dont forget next Tuesday I will be competing for all the fat, balding middle aged men around the world!!!!

I will keep you posted.

Training Day 1

2008-08-05T23:54:00.000-07:00

Finally got to the range today to train for the first time. No good news. The ammunition that I thought was going to be there to train with isn't here and won't be here for the Games either. I am using another Italian brand now which seems OK but really does recoil hard.

Shot 3 good rounds in 80% humidity and 26 C.

The scores here may not be as high as what everyone was thinking. the light is not great and this may have an effect on the scores.

Two more rounds scheduled for tomorrow

Smog is not a problem

2008-08-04T21:28:00.000-07:00

Finally we arrived at the village in the early hours of this morning. 12 hour flight from Sydney, a couple of hours clearing guns and finally in bed by 1am.

I must say its the best village in the 6 Games Villages I have been to.

We had our press conference this morning and the media were intent on asking about the pollution problems here. For us as shooters it wont cause any concern and may actually help as far as sighting of the targets are concerned.

OK I am off to pick up my uniform for the next week.

Busy busy busy

2008-08-03T01:09:00.000-07:00

Well the bags are packed ( although there is not much in them as I will receive my uniform upon arrival) and I am ready to go.

I could not have been happier how I have been training in Melbourne in some very poor weather. I am not foolish enough to think that training scores entirely indicate form, but I would rather have trained at a high standard as I have been instead of the alternative.

I can't say I am nervous or excited, but I will admit I am happy the day to leave has finally arrived.

It will be late tomorrow night before I finally get into the village. By all accounts the village is the best ever. I will give you my thoughts on that on Tuesday.

Cheers

Time to change Hemispheres

2008-07-28T03:37:00.000-07:00

Trained this morning early and it was cold. Today was one of the last serious days actually shooting at the range before I leave for Beijing next Monday. The weather here in Melbourne now is very unpredictable with a fair amount of wind, some rain and always coldness in the air. Everything it seems that Beijing wont be.

The great part about travelling to China for us here in Australia is there is virtually no time zone change. From Melbourne it is only 2 hours, from Perth nothing. All that equates to no jet lag so we can stay home a little longer than we normally could if we were competing in Europe or the States

I am looking forward to actually leaving now. I am shooting very well and I don't honestly think I will get better in the next week. So let the Games commence!

Opening Ceremony

2008-07-25T03:58:00.000-07:00

After my post yesterday it seems there are a few people in the media that are thinking that I am hinting that I would like to be the flag bearer for the team. Let me put the record straight. As much as I would consider it to be a great honour, I believe, and always have, that Rower James Tomkins should be the Australian Flag Bearer.

It can be a little dissapointing at times that a simple innocent comment in a blog such as this can be turned into something which it certainly was not intended.

Enough said, I will be back soon to post some positive comments.

15 Days to go

2008-07-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

You can't escape the fact that the Olympic Games are just around the corner now. Every time that I turn on the TV, Radio or read a Newspaper there is a countdown clock reminding me of just how many days I have before the Opening Ceremony commences.

This will actually be my sixth time that I will have had the opportunity to march at an Olympic Opening Ceremony. I have been to every one except the 1996 Opening since the Seoul Games in '88. Interestingly '96 was the year I won the Olympics! Despite superstition I will be attending again this year. If anyone can put on a decent fireworks display it should be the Chinese I feel.

Not all of the team will be marching. Because the return time is due to be 1am then obviously anyone competing on day 1 is advised not to go. Many athletes on day 2 and 3 are out also.

Ok off to training!!!!